You Didn't Protect Me
by Phantom Splash
Summary: It wasn't just that phrase that haunted Sokka while in the swamp.


**Hi! This was a short side project I did when I took a break from working on FF and ALBM****. I hope you like it, and reviews a really appreciated! :3**

"Hello?" Sokka hesitantly walked forward, unsure of what the near-blinding light would behold. After a few steps through the murky, knee-deep water, a familiar face came into recognition. "Yue?" It was impossible. She was now part of the moon, and it was daytime. At least he _thought_ it was daytime. With all of the dark branches covering the sky, it was hard to tell if the sun was out or not, because there was only dark, and less dark.

"This is just a trick of the light…" Sokka held his now aching head. "Swamp gas." That seemed reasonable, at least, more reasonable than any other answer. "I hit my head running away last night… I'm, uh, going crazy!" The more he rambled on, the more he doubted himself. Yue _was_ there, right in front of him. Her expression of sadness mixed with fear, anger, and condemnation was enough to re-break Sokka's heart.

"You didn't protect me." Yue's voice echoed throughout his head, and faded out with her spirit, leaving the water tribe boy standing alone in a near-desolate swamp, staring blankly at a beam of light.

Sokka stood there for a moment longer, hoping that she would reappear, but soon gave up and turned around. Yue was there, her frightening and beautiful spirit not more than half a foot away from him. Her disapproving look was now etched into Sokka's mind forever. "AH!" He tripped on a hidden root and lost his footing, landing hard on the muddy, wet ground.

He glanced up once more, but she was gone, and so was the light. Sokka frowned. _It was a hallucination; nothing more._ As soon as his racing heart slowed, he got up and drew his machete, prepared to whack his way through the entire swamp until he found Katara, Aang, Appa, and Momo.

He shredded the thick vines in front of him without mercy. In a few minutes, he came into another clearing.

"Are you sure we should follow through on this, sir?" Sokka's head shot over to where the sound was coming from. _Fire nation!_ He used the nearby vines to conceal himself.

In the clearing, there was a table covered in a map that was of the Northern Water Tribe's city. The area that had the spirit oasis was circled in red.

"Of course. Why wouldn't we?" The man at the table, now identified as Admiral Zhao, scowled at the man next to him.

"Well… It _is_ the moon spirit, sir. Wouldn't killing it be a little… extreme?"

"It's just a fish." He disdainfully replied. "Who would really care?"

"RRRRRAGH!" Sokka screamed with rage as he sprinted from his hiding spot and sliced at his foe, which was nothing more than a rotting log sticking out of the water. "I CARED ABOUT HER!" The log, now reduced to splinters, sank into the murky water.

After letting his rage cool down, Sokka climbed onto a thick log that seemed to go on for forever. _I might be able to cover ground faster this way. The sooner we leave this creepy place, the better._

"We'll have the main battalions strike here, here, and here. That will clear a path for me and my raiding party. Once the moon is out of the picture, we will strike with all of our forces, and the Northern Water Tribe will fall." The voice of Zhao came from the other side of the "hill" in the log. Sokka slowly climbed up it and peered over the edge, to find Zhao and a few other Fire Nation officials looking a map that the admiral was pointing to with a long, slender, and cruel-looking metal rod.

"But what if there are men guarding the two spirits? Don't you think we should expand the size of your group? We wouldn't want one to escape and alarm others of what we are trying to do. If they do, we will have to retreat." One of the men asked.

"Trust me, general, the tribe will fall right for our trap. Even if they did have someone to guarding the area, he could be taken down easily. Killing the moon spirit, men, will be like shooting a fish in a barrel."

Sokka slid down the log and beheaded Zhao with his machete. The thick stick that had previously resembled Zhao's head landed in the water with a soft _sploosh_. "You horrible, despicable…." Sokka threw his hands up in frustration for his lack of words to describe his hatred for the admiral "URGH! WHY COULDN'T I HAVE BEEN THERE SOONER?" The boy landed on his knees heavily, tears starting to well up.

Events surrounding the killing of the moon spirit and Yue giving it her life faded into existence all around Sokka- Iroh threatening Zhao, the water benders losing their power because of the eclipse, Aang turning into a giant koi fish and destroying the entire fleet of invaders, Yue insisting upon returning the life in her to the koi fish, and many others overwhelmed his senses. They soon pulled together to form the floating figure of Yue, who was up on the hill after the one he was on.

"Yue!" He ran up to her and stopped right below where she was.

"It was my duty Sokka, just like it is now yours to help the avatar defeat the Fire Lord."

"Please, come back."

Yue smiled, immediately filling Sokka with warmth and happiness. "What do you mean? I'm always with you." She bent down to kiss Sokka, who stood on his tip toes to try and reach her. Her hand gently squeezed and object into his as their lips nearly touched.

"WH-AH!" A voice squealed from somewhere nearby. Yue vanished, and Sokka spun around, unsure where the noise came from. A hard object hit him in the back and sent him flying back down the log. Sokka groaned and looked up, his vision blurry for a moment. Once it cleared, he realized that it was none other than Aang and Katara who were lying in front of him. He quickly shoved the small object under his belt and angrily got up.

"What do you guys think you're doing? I've been all over looking for you!"

"Well, I've been wandering around looking for you!" Katara defended.

"I was chasing some girl…" Aang mumbled, sounding unsure of himself.

_Well aren't you the ladies man?_ Sokka thought to himself sarcastically.

"What girl?"

"I dunno. I heard laughing and I saw some girl in a fancy dress." _Well that makes two of us… minus the laughing_.

"Well there must be a tea party here and we just didn't get our invitations." Sokka replied sarcastically, then thought with bitterness, _and somehow Zhao got one._

"I thought I saw mom." Katara confessed. The boys' eyes widened.

"Look, we were all just scared, and hungry, and our minds were playing tricks on us, and that's we all saw things out here." He explained, half hoping it was the truth, and the other half hoping he was lying.

"You saw something too?" Katara asked hopefully.

"I thought I saw Yue," He turned away, not wanting to reveal his emotions to Aang and his sister. He pulled out the object Yue had given him earlier and looked at it. The item was a crude carving of a fish, and slightly resembled a bear. Instead of just being brown, it had a silvery tint that glimmered when the light struck it. _I _know_ I saw her_


End file.
